staff

Chloe France, MSW

Clinical Social Worker

Chloe France earned a Master of Social Welfare degree at the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining the Memory and Aging Center, Chloe worked as a social worker at a memory care facility, working closely with residents and their families. Chloe has worked in long-term care settings and inpatient services and provided in-home visits. Chloe loves to work with families and patients to find solutions, provide support and improve the quality of life of those living with dementia.

Shirley Chen

Clinical Research Coordinator

Shirley was born in Guangzhou, China, and grew up in Los Angeles, California. She attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacology. During her undergraduate studies, she worked as a Certified Pharmacy Technician and gained patient care experience as an Emergency Department volunteer and Surgical Nursing volunteer in the hospital.

Alexander Shumonov

Full Stack Developer

Pongpat Putthinun, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholar & Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health

Pongpat Putthinun is a health economist and postdoctoral scholar in the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. He joined the Decision Lab team, led by Dr. Winston Chiong, and is currently working on a project aimed at understanding how genetic predispositions to frontotemporal dementia influence decision-making in the pre-symptomatic phase. Through neuroeconomic methods, the research seeks to identify incidents of early impaired judgment that could lead to early intervention strategies to decelerate the onset of frontotemporal dementia.

Janet Allen-Williams

Academic Assistant

Janet Allen-Williams joined the UCSF Department of Neurology in 2015. Since April 2023, Janet has been serving as an Academic Assistant for the Memory and Aging Center, providing Academic Core Team services for the education team.
 

Maya Desai

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

Maya graduated from UC San Diego in 2023 with a degree in Cognitive Science, Specializing in Neuroscience. As an undergraduate, she worked at the Center for Healthy Eating and Activity Research and the Zeidan Lab. At the UCSF Memory and Aging Center she works on the Frontotemporal Dementia: Genes, Images and Emotions study.

Carina Lo

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

Carina is a research coordinator in Dr. Joel Kramer’s lab working primarily on Dr. Kramer’s Healthy Aging studies. She graduated with a BS degree in Biology from Tufts University in May 2023.

Aaron Colverson, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholar & Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health

Aaron Colverson is a Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnomusicology, with partnering research in Neuropsychology. He graduated from Berklee College of Music with a BM degree in Professional Music focusing on jazz violin performance, after which he moved to Nairobi, Kenya, for two years, embedding himself in East African musical traditions and cultures.

Emily Paolillo

Emily Paolillo, PhD

Assistant Adjunct Professor

Emily Paolillo, PhD, is an Assistant Professor and neuropsychologist at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. She obtained her PhD degree in Clinical Psychology (emphasis in Neuropsychology) from the SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in 2021, which included a predoctoral clinical internship at VA Palo Alto Health Care System. Her program of research focuses on advancing real-world assessment of cognitive and everyday functioning in older adults in naturalistic settings, with the goal of improving early and sensitive detection of change in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

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